The Plasma technology now makes it possible to achieve flat colour panel of large size (out of the CRT limitations) and with very limited depth without any viewing angle constraints.
Referring to the last generation of European TV, a lot of work has been made to improve its picture quality. Consequently, a new technology like the Plasma one has to provide a picture quality as good or better than standard TV technology. On one hand, the Plasma technology gives the possibility of “unlimited” screen size, of attractive thickness . . . but on the other hand, it generates new kinds of artefacts which could degrade the picture quality.
Most of these artefacts are different as for CRT TV pictures and that makes them more visible since people are used to see the old TV artefacts unconsciously.
A Plasma Display Panel (PDP) utilizes a matrix array of discharge cells which could only be “ON” or “OFF”. Also unlike a CRT or LCD in which grey levels are expressed by analogue control of the light emission, a PDP controls the grey level by modulating the number of light pulses per frame (sustain pulses). This time-modulation will be integrated by the eye over a period corresponding to the eye time response.
To achieve a good image quality, contrast is of paramount importance. On Plasma Display Panels (PDPs) contrast values are inferior to those achieved for CRTs due to following 2 reasons:                In PDPs a priming process which makes a pre-excitation of the plasma cells is required to prepare the cells for homogeneous light emission in sub-fields. This priming process has on the other hand the negative effect that a panel background light is generated.        Large time is used for addressing in PDPs, which reduces the level of achievable light output.        